Import New Records or Update From CSV

Select the CSV File for Import

Navigate to Data Management > Magical Import. Select the database and the record type in the top menu. Then choose the CSV file that you would like to import.

Uploading a file into Insycle does not import it to the CRM right away. Instead, you can prepare the data in a variety of ways before actually importing it to the CRM.

Explore the templates to see if there's already something set up for your particular import task.

Map CSV Columns to CRM Fields

After uploading your CSV data, Insycle analyzes your file and compares the columns in the file to fields in your CRM database.

A column is included for each field in the CSV, with the CSV column header appearing as the top row. Insycle automatically detects the matching CRM fields and maps them for you. The second row shows the mapped CRM field names.

If your CSV contains fields that are not matched to your CRM, a red error notification icon will show at the top of the column. These unmapped fields need to be mapped manually by clicking the picklist and finding the appropriate CRM field. If they remain unmapped they will not be imported.

To remove fields from the import, hover over the column name and click the “X”.

If there are issues with some row data, the red warning icon will be shown on the left side of the row. When you hover over the icon, an explanation of the error will be displayed. Records that have errors in them will not be imported. Learn about fixing errors in the Troubleshooting section below.

Specify How to Import Values for Each Column

With all relevant fields mapped, tell Insycle how to use the data on a field-by-field basis by selecting the Import Mode, in the third row of the table.

Four Import Mode Options

• Update – Update CRM records with all non-empty field data contained in the CSV.
• Fill – Import CSV values only when the corresponding field in your CRM is empty.
• Overwrite – Insycle will replace any existing data in your CRM with the data in the CSV — even if the CSV field is empty.
• Append – Import values from the CSV and append (add them to) the existing data already in your CRM. A typical example of how “Append” is used would be in a “Notes” field.

To make any final changes to values before they are imported, you can edit the import data directly in Insycle by hovering over a value and clicking the pencil icon.

Insycle uses Identity Fields to compare your CSV to your CRM data. When selecting your Identity Field, make sure it is truly a "unique identifier." These are data points that would only belong to a single record—such as email address, phone number, street address, or ID number. Names are not particularly reliable because there can be plenty of people with the same name. For companies, it could also be company name or company domain. 

Under Step 2 on the Import tab, select the Identity Field from the dropdown.

Note that when using an email field, Insycle will automatically cross-reference any additional email fields in the records for a match. If using a domain field, Insycle will check additional domain fields. 

Select the Records Mode to tell Insycle how the imported data should be handled during the import process. 

• Update existing and create net new – If Insycle is unable to find a corresponding record, a new record will be created in your CRM.
• Only update existing – If a corresponding record is found, it will be updated with the data from your CSV import. Records that are not matched with an existing CRM record will not be imported.
• Only create net new – Only records that can not be matched with an existing record in your database will be imported. Records that already exist in your CRM will not be updated.

Under Step 3, you can make bulk changes to the CSV data or filter out rows before it is uploaded to your CRM. The options selected and applied here will be reflected in the table view of the data in Step 1, not done directly in your database.

On the Functions tab of Step 3, select fields and functions to apply to the field data.

In the above example, the First Name, Last Name, and Account will be capitalized, and the Mobile field will be standardized to E.164 format, which can be used for international phone number formatting.

Click the Apply button to update your CSV data and view the changes under Step 1. You must apply these updates before importing.

Under Step 4, several options give you additional control over the data you import:

• List (HubSpot only) – Add your imported data to an existing list. Only available for HubSpot Contact records.
• Campaign (Salesforce only) – Add the imported data to an existing Salesforce campaign.
• Bulk Update – Update a specific field on import. For example, we could update all imported records to have the Job Title of “Founder,” regardless of the data contained within the CSV file.
• Associate/Link – Create relationships between contacts, companies, deals, or other custom objects. (The name of this tab can vary depending on what creating relationships is called in your CRM.)
• Date Format – Format dates contained within your CSV file to your preferred standard.

By default, Insycle will attempt to import all of your formatted CSV data into your database.

If there are only a few records you want to import—perhaps to test things out before importing the entire CSV—return to the table under Step 1 and check the boxes beside the select records. Leave the checkboxes blank to import all of the records.

When you click the IMPORT button under Step 5, you'll be prompted to confirm.

⚠️ Note that there is no preview step. Once you confirm, the changes will be applied to your CRM immediately.

After the import runs, the Import Result breaks down the import information—how many records you tried to import and how many succeeded, failed, were updated, deleted, or unmodified. Click the Run ID to open a CSV report.

Insycle will also email you a CSV report of these changes. If you open the CSV file, you can look at the Result column to see how each row of your import was handled.

The Result column may show:

• Created - A new record was created in your CRM
• Updated - An existing record was found and updated with data from the CSV
• Failed - If there is an issue, the Message field will give you details so you can troubleshoot

You can also see the (Before) and (After Update) values side-by-side for each field in your import.

After you've seen the results in the CRM and you are satisfied with how the operation runs, you can save all of the configurations as a template, to reproduce the same import and format operation in the future.

Insycle uses Identity Fields to compare your CSV to your CRM data. Identity fields must be "unique identifiers." These are data points that could only belong to a single contact—such as email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, or ID numbers.

Additionally, when using an email field, Insycle will automatically cross-reference any additional email fields in the records for a match. If using a domain field, Insycle will check additional domain fields. 

When you make your Identity Field selection, the data under Step 1 will refresh, and you'll be able to see which records are already in your database. The records that Insycle found will become blue links that will open the record in your CRM.

In this scenario, if you use the Update Existing and Create Net New setting, Insycle will create a new record for any CSV rows that don't match all five criteria.

If you use the Only Update Existing setting, there will most likely be few records that match all your criteria, and much of your CSV data will not be imported because Insycle will not be able to find the correct record to update.

Typically, it is best to use a single identity field to improve the likelihood of finding existing records in your CRM.

If you rely on URLs to match imported data with records in your CRM, the formatting of those values can be key. Perhaps the data in your CRM is inconsistent, with different representatives entering URLs differently, or maybe website addresses are formatted differently in an external data source.

For example:

• https://www.acme.com
• http://acme.com
• acme.com
• www.acme.com

When importing, a CSV with varied URL formats might look like this:

Insycle lets you easily clean and format values from a CSV before they are imported. All the cleanup happens on the Insycle side, ensuring the import has standardized data.

By using the Functions under Step 3, you can make bulk changes to the CSV data before it is uploaded. The options selected and applied here will be reflected in the table view of the data in Step 1, not done directly in your CRM.

To eliminate format variants, you can isolate the second-level domain. Under Step 3, select the website or URL column, then select the Extract: Domain from URL function. This will keep just the second-level and top-level domain (acme.com). If you need to take it a step further, and remove the top-level domain (keeping "acme"), add a second function to the column, Remove Top-level domain. 

Click Apply, then review the changes to the column data under Step 1 to verify that the column data matches the needed format. In this example, the domain has been extracted from the URL, so only the second-level and top-level domains remain. These are the values that will be imported into your CRM.

Learn more about cleaning data before vs. after importing it into your CRM.

Insycle attempts to match date values using multiple formats in the following order:

1. Date time with timezone: 2018-07-19T23:25:45.671-0400
2. Date time in UTC timezone: 2018-07-19T10:15:30Z 
3. YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
4. Date (YYYY-MM-DD): 2018-07-19 or 2018/07/09
5. Date (M-D-YYYY): 07-19-2018 or 7/19/2018

All the above formats work with and without the - or / symbols.

Learn more about reformatting dates before the data is imported into your CRM.

If there are issues with a record, the red warning icon will be shown on the left side of the record. Records that have errors in them will not be imported.

To learn what the problem is and determine steps to resolve it, hover over the red exclamation mark—an explanation of the error will display. 

If a field in your CRM includes dropdown values and the data included in your CSV does not match, the row will display an "Invalid picklist value" error. This value needs to be changed to match the dropdown options used in your CRM.

You can make quick fixes to the import data directly in Insycle by hovering over a value and clicking the pencil icon.

If a record in your CSV is not being matched to a CRM record and you know that it should be, there are several potential causes:

The Identity Field you chose does not match between the CSV and CRM

Have a look at the data in your CRM using the Grid Edit module, adding columns to the layout so you can explore the fields and values. Then compare this against the columns and values that are in your CSV to find a reliable but unique field that matches between the two sources. 

You are using too many Identity Fields

You can select more than one identity field; however, ALL of the fields must match, not just one or some of them. If you include five identity fields and four of them match, but one doesn't, Insycle will not consider the record a match. 

Typically, it is best to use a single identity field to improve the likelihood of finding existing records in your CRM.

Your Identity Field choice is too broad

Insycle uses Identity Fields to compare your CSV to your CRM data. If you're using a field that is not truly unique as an Identity Field, it's likely that Insycle won't be able to identify one single record as a match. For instance, there could be many people with the First Name, "John" in your CRM. This is why uniqueness is key.

When selecting your Identity Field, make sure it is truly a "unique identifier." These are data points that would only belong to a single record—such as email address, phone number, street address, or ID number. For companies, it could also be company name, or company domain.

There is a syncing issue

To refresh the data in Insycle, navigate to Settings > Sync Status, select the account, and click the Refresh Accounts List button. Alternatively, you could log out of Insycle and then log back in.

For help re-syncing a specific field, contact support.

If you have set up formatting or standardization functions in Step 3, but aren't seeing those changes reflected after importing your data, make sure that you click the Apply button.

You must apply these updates to your CSV data before importing it into your CRM. You will see these changes reflected in the data under Step 1.

Yes, Insycle will automatically map fields that it is able to identify. However, if there are cases where it can't figure out what a field should map to, a warning icon will appear, and the CRM field dropdown will say "Not Mapped." You should select the corresponding CRM field to ensure the field is included in the import.

Yes, you can easily add to existing data using the Fill or Append Import Modes in Step 1.

• Fill: Import CSV values only when there is no existing value in CRM (will not overwrite existing CRM values).
• Append: Add CSV values to existing values in your CRM. For example, append notes from a CSV to existing notes or add values on multi-select fields (checkboxes or picklists).

Yes, Insycle provides many functions that can clean, format, and standardize data from your CSV before it's imported into your database. The options selected and applied here will be reflected in the table view of the data in Step 1, not done directly in your CRM.

Under Step 3, on the Functions tab, you can select fields and apply formatting and transformation changes to the field data. These are the same functions found in the Transform Data module, which you can learn more about in the Function Catalog.

Yes, Insycle allows you to associate records while importing data from a CSV in Step 4 using the Associate or Link tab. (The tab label may vary, depending on the CRM.)

Learn more about associating records while importing from a CSV.

Yes, Insycle allows you to compare the CSV to existing data in your CRM records. The Compare (Preview) tab under Step 2 provides a simple CSV report showing the values from your original CSV next to the values currently in your CRM.

To learn more, see the Compare CSV Data to Existing Records In Your CRM article.

Yes, the Magical Import module can handle up to 100k rows for each CSV import. Keep in mind that the more rows and fields you have in your CSV, the slower the import process will be. If you run into any issues, try breaking the CSV into segments and remove any extraneous fields.